AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



115 



"A honey-producer with the right 

 kind of bees and appliances and man- 

 agement, can always produce honey 

 cheaper than he can buy glucose," says 

 Mr. Heddon. It is to be presumed that 

 he has the right bees, appliances and 

 management, and if he can always pro- 

 duce honey cheaper than he can buy 

 glucose and then sell it for two or three 

 times as much, he is hardly wise lo be 

 fooling away his time in the publication 

 of a newspaper instead of expanding his 

 honey-production. Guarantee for a 

 series of years to furnish a suGScient 

 amount of honey at 50 per cent, advance 

 on the price of glucose, and I think 

 quite a few bee-keepers would prefer 

 to buy rather than to produce their 

 honey. 



" No one is practicing it except the 

 city dealers," Mr. Heddon says. How 

 does he know that ? And if adultera- 

 tion is the nice and good thing that Mr. 

 Heddon represents, why should the bee- 

 keeper leave it to the city dealer ? Can't 

 he mix glucose and honey just as well as 

 the city dealer ? Even admitting that 

 he can produce honey for less than he 

 can buy glucose, could he not, the past 

 season, have made quite a nice little ex- 

 tra profit by adding to his honey one- 

 third glucose, and then selling at the 

 price of honey ? 



Mr. Heddon winds up with the state- 

 ment : "One or two good seasons will 

 stop adulteration so completely that it 

 will amount to nothing." Not a very 

 reassuring statement, certainly. For I 

 suppose that means that a big crop 

 would bring down the price of honey to 

 that of glucose, in which case I suspect 

 a good many would leave the business of 

 producing honey. Just so long as there 

 is a profit in mixing glucose with honey, 

 you may count that adulterators will 

 continue their work, big crop or no big 

 crop, if they can safely do so. Just for 

 this reason an earnest effort is .now 

 being made to enlarge the scope of,, the 

 Bee-Keepers' Union so as to prosecute 

 adulteration, and if the effort is success- 

 ful I am sure Mr. Heddon will have the 

 good sense to resign the office of Presi- 

 dent, for it would hardly be in keeping 

 for the President of the Union to take 

 any part in the prosecution of those 

 whom he esteems benefactors of the 

 members of the Union. 



The strangest part in the whole affair 

 is the reported reply of Prof. Cook, 

 " Mr. Heddon may be right." I don't 

 believe he said it. At least I don't be- 

 lieve he meant It in the broad sense in 

 which it appears, as applying to all that 

 Mr. Heddon said. Even if glucose may 



be entirely pure and good, it is a dishon- 

 est act to palm it off on the public as 

 honey. But you'd better see and taste 

 for yourself. Professor, those grades of 

 glucose that are really wholesome be- 

 fore you make any apparent concession. 

 And I very much doubt if you find them 

 better than what you tried and pro- 

 nounced " not good." But whether good 

 or bad, adulteration is still adulteration, 

 and it will be a " cold day " for us if the 

 man who has been the leader in saying 

 brave words against it shall have said 

 his "last word against adulteration." 

 Marengo, Ills. 



How to Catcli and Kill Skunks 

 that molest Bees. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY H. C. FARNUM. 



On having my bees disturbed nearly 

 every night during the fall and early 

 part of the winter by a digging at the 

 front of the hive, and as I was not thor- 

 oughly acquainted with the nature of 

 affairs, and being no tracking on snow, 

 so I could see any tracks, I set a steel 

 trap at the entrance of a hive where the 

 pawing was done most, and concluded 

 to have the " chap " that was disturbing 

 my little friends. 



Behold, the next morning I had a Mr. 

 Skunk fast. Now I had him, but the 

 next thing was to kill him without scent- 

 ing everythiag with his pot^erful per- 

 fume. It was about that time I felt the 

 need of some kind of literature in which 

 I might learn how to kill a skunk and 

 not get killed myself. 



But fortunately I had a kind neighbor 

 who possessed the very kind of knowl- 

 edge which I wished to know, so I hast- 

 ened to him and told him what kind of 

 a trap I had got into. I asked him for 

 relief, which he granted me at once, by 

 arranging a long pole with a hook at the 

 end to pull the stake to which the trap 

 of the skunk was attached, and led Mr. 

 Skunk to the river, where he drowned 

 him, which proved a very successful 

 way, as it left no scent behind at all. 



Since then I have caught quite a num- 

 ber in the same way, the past month 

 affording sufficient tracking snow to 

 follow the little " chaps " home. Of late 

 I have not been troubled any with 

 skunks, and with the exception of a 

 few colonies the skunks raided, my bees 

 are all in good condition, numbering 

 120 colonies, with sufficient stores for 

 winter. 



